Designing and illustrating the cover of American Illustration represents one of the most glamourous and challenging projects in our field. It is an unusual undertaking because there are none of the normal boundaries that define most design and illustration assignments. The scope of production and the content was ours to define—just enough rope to hang ourselves. After many ideas in the wastebasket, we settled on telling the story of two journeys using a translucent sheet of red acetate for the book jacket, which would darkly display the book cover underneath. Our hope was that with both jacket and cover simultaneously visible, we would create two interconnected visual narratives about our deepest anxieties and a longing for meaning in our life’s work.

The red plastic jacket invites you to discover the end to a somewhat dark narrative that the cover is telling.